Off Road Driving in mud
Driving through mud, especially if there are deep wheel tracks, demands non-stop concentration on the road so that you’ll be able to choose the right trajectory. It also requires from you virtuosity during acceleration and while steering. If you manage to get through the mud without stopping and your car “goes” where you wanted it to go, you get a great satisfaction. And you can consider that you do understand something about off road driving.
Few Off Road driving advices…
◊ To be able to hold the right direction, drive without skidding. Otherwise you will loose control and your car can start to slide and you will end up in the ditch, in the wheel tracks, in the tree or elsewhere.
◊ If the wheels of your car start to spin but the car is still moving onwards, let “her“ do it. But if the onward moving has stopped, you should also stop your efforts, because you will only sink deeper in the mud by continuing such “driving“. The only thing you can try in such situation (if you don’t “sit“ on the axles) is to shift into third reduction gear and try to skid so that the trod could dispose of the mud – sometimes it helps.
◊ During off road driving it is not recommended to drive directly in the wheel tracks. You should choose one of the following options:
• If the width of axles of your car allows or the wheel track is narrow enough, go over it leaving it in the middle.
• If the wheel track is wide, let the wheels of one side go through it and the wheels of other side – on top of it. If after such experiment your “kangaroo catching grid” has “caught” a bunch of turfs, you can be sure, that this wheel track was really deep – it’s better to avoid it.
◊ If however you find yourself in the wheel track with all four wheels and the car is still moving onwards, here’s what you can do to exit from the “tramway rails“ in a real off road driving style:
• Unless the wheel tracks are not very narrow, you can try to “swing” the wheels out of them: use the second reduction gear, turn the steering wheel to the left and then make a sharp turn to the right – and so the front wheels has “swung” out of the wheel track on right side. If you want to get on the left side, turn the steering to the other side. In the case of “swinging out” there is no guaranty that the rear wheels will also get out.
• Take a shovel and dig “gaps” on that side of the wheel tracks, where you want get out. Turn to the right or left respectively, shift into the first reduction gear and when the front wheels get into the “gaps” they will climb up on the edge of the wheel track. Usually in this case the rear wheels follow the front wheels.
Driving through branches
As a result to forestry operations, forest roads and paths are often covered with branches or slabs. They lay on the roads criss-cross and can stick somewhere in the transmission and make a very unpleasant surprise – perforate the brake pipes, damage the ram rubbers, stick in the ventilation system, etc. To continue your off road driving in a safe way, it is recommended to step out of the car, to walk along and evaluate the road, take aside the biggest logs and branches that are laying “against the grain” and then drive through with the lowest possible gear.
Driving through long grass
You would laugh if I recommended walking through the grass at first. Because most often in this “long grass” there are thistles, nettles and other prickling weed… And to wade through it for several kilometres in a nice summer day of 30ºC is quite a challenge for your endurance and it doesn’t go together with off road driving.
And still… there can be rocks and logs in the grass. Sometimes even drainage well without the cover. So here we drive slowly and carefully with minimum rotation speed.